yet employed;
The untamed tiger lurks
In unfelled forest and unfooted brake;
Those streams scarce know a keel;
Through the rank herbage writhes the monstrous snake;
Dim shapes of terror steal
Unmarked and menacing from clump to clump,
Whilst from the tangled scrub
Is heard the trampling elephant's angry trump.
The frolic tiger-cub
Tumbles in jungle-shambles; in his lair
The lion couches prone.
What does that winged portent in mid-air,
Hovering alert, alone?
Strong-pinioned, brazen-beaked, and iron-clawed,
This Eagle from the West;
Adventurous, ravening for prey, unawed
By perils of the quest.
Beneath new clouds, above fresh fields he flies,
Foraging fleet and far,
With clutching talons, and with hungering eyes,
Scornful of bound or bar.
Winged things, he deems, may safely oversweep
Landmark and mountain-post.
The Forest-king may fancy he can keep
His realm against a host
Of such aerial harpies. Be it proved!
Till late the Imperial fowl
Not far from its home-pinnacles hath roved;
Now LEO on the prowl
Must watch his winged rival. Who may tell
Where it shall strike or stoop?
LEO, your lair must now be warded well;
AQUILA'S on the Swoop!

* * * * *

THE LAST CHARGE OF THE LIGHT BRIGADE.

(_Brought by the Survivors against those--who might have looked after
them._)

"But we are all getting older every year, and with the lapse
of time, while many have died, a good number have fallen into
dire misfortune.... LORD CARDIGAN'S words to the survivors
of the Six Hundred the morning after the charge have been
repeated to me, although I wasn't there to hear them. He said:
'Men, you have done a glorious deed! England will be proud of
you, and grateful to you. If you live to get home, be sure
you will all be provided for. Not one of you fine fellows will
ever have to seek refuge in the workhouse!' Now, you perhaps
know how that promise has been kept. I cannot tell you, even
from my secretarial records, the full extent of the misery
that has fallen upon my old comrades in the Charge of the
Light Brigade; but I can give you a few details that should
be made widely public."--_The Secretary of the Balaclava
Committee._

FORTY years, Forty years,
All but four--onward,
Since to the Valley